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Markettech 08: Dana Vanden Heuvel
Markettech 08: Dana Vanden Heuvel
08
T
his guide is meant to serve as an overview of the marketing
technologies available to you, the seasoned marketer, in the
upcoming year 2008. While not impossible, it would be dif-
ficult to chronicle every single piece of new marketing technology
that you can use. We’ve provided you with the most accessible and
actionable tools in this guide.
Contents
Social Media Mining, Buzz Monitoring, Customer Listening 4
Online Video, Videoblogging, Video Sharing, Viral Video 6
Blogging, Bloggers & Weblogs 8
Widgets & Gadgets 10
Universal Search and the Future of Search 12
Social Networking & Customer Community for Business & Marketing 14
Social Media Optimization (SMO) 16
Really Simple Syndication (RSS) 18
Virtual Events 20
Honorable Mentions in Marketing Technology for 2008 22
Additional Marketing Technology Resources 26
Marketing Technology and Social Media Terms 36
MarketTech 08
FAQ’s
As with anything new, such as this guide, there are likely to be a few
questions. Here are a few that we’ve anticipated, and I’m sure that there
are likely to be more. Let us know what you think!
1
Social Media Mining,
Buzz Monitoring,
Customer Listening
This guide is about what leading marketers will be doing with technology in 2008. There are
opportunities abound for the savvy marketer, but none is more important than listening to
the customer by tuning into their frequency in newsgroups, blogs, podcasts, and social me-
dia sites. In fact, as the marketing mix moved from a ‘monologue’ model to one of dialogue
and conversation, success with marketing technology will be predicated on a successful
buzz monitoring and customer listening strategy.
Social media or buzz monitoring can be done professionally. Firms like Cym-
phony, Umbria, Factiva, Buzzlogic and dozens of other companies have sprung
up to go beyond the blogs. They’re monitoring and tracking ALL mediums that
are used by social media enabled consumers. It’s more than just listening; it’s
about applying benchmarks, heuristics and intelligence around social media,
not just one-dimensional DIY tools.
MarketTech 08
Online Video,
2
Videoblogging,
Video Sharing,
Viral Video
While it’s often YouTube [www.youtube.com] that gets the majority of at-
tention in the online video space, there is so much more to video that drives
its efficacy for marketers. Take, for example, the once small high-end
blender company, Blendtec.A 186-employee company in Orem, Utah, that
built brand awareness with its “Will it Blend?” [www.willitblend.com] se-
ries. Millions of online viewers have watched Chief Executive Tom Dickson
blend up dizzying array objects from lumber to the iPhone. For Blendtec, it
was not really a question of “Will It Blend?” but “Does It Sell?” The answer
is: Yes. According to George Wright, Director of Marketing for Blendtec,
consumer sales have increased five-fold since the videos went up on You-
Tube and Revver [www.revver.com].
MarketTech 08
3
Blogging,
Bloggers &
Weblogs
Definition:
A blog (a portmanteau of web log) is a website where entries are written in
chronological order and commonly displayed in reverse chronological order.
“Blog” can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a
blog.
Executives should blog if Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others
they have a vision they function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, im-
are trying to communi- ages, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its
cate, or if they are very topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is
visible in the media. an important part of many blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual, although
Mark Cuban some focus on art (artlog), photographs (photoblog), sketchblog, videos
(vlog), music (MP3 blog), audio (podcasting) and are part of a wider network
of social media. Micro-blogging is another type of blogging which consists
of blogs with very short posts.
(Source: Wikipedia)
MarketTech 08
4 Widgets &
Gadgets
What’s a Widget?
According to MarketingSherpa: “Widgets are small applications used to meet
computer users’ specific needs by providing quick access to Internet sites;
desktop utilities, such as to-do lists, calendars, clocks, weather, games, enter-
tainment; and tools, such as system resource monitors or application launchers.
Most widgets look like a tiny window on the user’s desktop or Web page. You
might also see widgets referred to as gadgets, badges, capsules, gizmos, minis,
modules, plug-ins or snippets.”
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MarketTech 08
11
5 Universal Search &
the Future of Search
It used to be that Yahoo! And Google were the only games in town worth play-
ing when it came to search engines. Google has certainly left its stamp on the
world, but as with most things in marketing technology, search never stands still
for very long. While Google vies for supremacy
with the ‘one-box’ and the concept of Universal
search, our attention remains fragmented and
small, vertical and media-specific search en-
gines are gaining traction each and every day.
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MarketTech 08
13
6
Social Networking &
Customer Community for Business &
Marketing
14
MarketTech 08
15
7 Social Media Optimization
SMO
What is SMO?
Social media optimization (SMO) is a set of methods for generating
Simple SMO publicity through social media, online communities and community
The idea of increasing linkability and websites. Methods of SMO include adding RSS feeds, adding a
making tagging easy is often defeated by “Digg This” button, blogging and incorporating third party commu-
marketers offering an “icon soup” of dif- nity functionalities like Flickr photo slides and galleries or YouTube
ferent social media sites. videos. Social media optimization is a form of search engine mar-
keting.
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MarketTech 08
17
8 Really Simple Syndication
RSS
Really Simply Syndication or Rich Site Summary has been around for a decade,
but had not received much fanfare as a marketer’s tool until the last few years.
With the rise of companies like Pheedo and FeedBurner and the evolution of
RSS from an obscure syndication technology to a powerful information delivery,
search optimization and advertising channel, RSS can no longer stand on the
sidelines in the game of marketing.
What is RSS?
According to the Wikipedia definition: “RSS (formally “RDF Site Summary”,
known colloquially as “Really Simple Syndication”) is a family of Web feed for-
mats used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news
headlines or podcasts. An RSS document, which is called a “feed”, “web feed”,
or “channel”, contains either a summary of content from an associated web site
or the full text. RSS makes it possible for people to keep up with their favorite
web sites in an automated manner that’s easier than checking them manually.
RSS content can be read using software called an “RSS reader”, “feed reader”
or an “aggregator”. The user subscribes to a feed by entering the feed’s link into
the reader or by clicking an RSS icon in a browser that initiates the subscrip-
tion process. The reader checks the user’s subscribed feeds regularly for new
content, downloading any updates that it finds.”
All the way back in 2005, a Forrester Research report indicated that “57% of
marketers said that they were interested in using Really Simple Syndication
(RSS) as a marketing channel.” That number has only gone up, and consum-
ers have gone from wondering what RSS is, to demanding RSS as an available
communication channel. In order to ‘meet customers in the medium’, RSS is an
imperative on every corporate and media website.
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MarketTech 08
19
9 Virtual Events
A technology that some have called “SecondLife meets WebEx”, virtual events
were once considered futuristic and incapable of holding the attention of an
audience in a ‘virtual environment’, however, virtual events have grown from
small-scale events to enterprise class trade shows that seriously rival their of-
fline terrestrial counterparts. As the number of vendor choices increase and the
cost per event comes down, 2008 may be the year to dip your town into the
virtual event waters.
With a growing number of vendors in this space, we are sure to see the cost of
these events continue to drop, the capabilities of the platforms continue to rise
and an increasing acceptance of virtual events as legitimate venues for doing
real business.
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MarketTech 08
21
10 Honorable Mentions in Marketing
Technology for 2008
As we illustrated in the Marketech ’08 Marketing Technology Guide, there is no shortage of marketing technol-
ogy for marketers to pursue in 2008. In fact, there are many more technologies that we can discuss, but as
much as we would like to believe that the long tail of marketing technology will lead to riches, there is only so
much budget and bandwidth available to the modern marketer and we all need to focus our limited resources
on those tactics and techniques which are likely to net us the greatest gain.
All that said, there are a series of remaining marketing technologies which may be just the ticket for certain
marketers trying to reach specific demographics, but which fall outside the realm of ‘mainstream’ for the pur-
pose of most of you reading this document. If you’re the type that’s looking for ever more ideas to reach your
increasingly attention starved customer base, read on. What we’d like to leave you with are a host of definitions
and a few ideas on what’s next in marketing technology.
Certainly IPTV has arrived, as has movie delivery over IP. However, the promise
of ‘more interactive television’ remains elusive.
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MarketTech 08
When consumers think of the technology advances that they have witnessed in
the past decade, it’s hard to argue that video games, game consoles and online
games have come a long way. The advances for marketers, however, have yet to
arrive. Major universities have applied time and resources to developing models
for determining the most effective in-game marketing models, but at the end of
the day, the results amount to little more than understanding the most effective
virtual billboard placement for novice vs. advanced players. The application for
mainstream marketers here is still quite limited.
MASHUPS
In technology, a mashup is a web application that combines data from more
than one source into a single integrated tool; an example is the use of carto-
graphic data from Google Maps to add location information to real-estate data
from Craigslist, thereby creating a new and distinct web service that was not
originally provided by either source.
23
10 Honorable Mentions in Marketing
Technology for 2008
MOBILE MARKETING
Mobile Marketing is meant to describe marketing on or with a mobile
device, such as a mobile phone. Marketing on a mobile phone has be-
come increasingly popular ever since the rise of SMS (Short Message
Service) in the early 2000s in Europe and some parts of Asia when busi-
nesses started to collect mobile phone numbers and send off wanted
(or unwanted) content.
In this case, the fiction has predicted a major new paradigm where interac-
tive marketing is concerned.Businesses and individuals are looking towards
Second Life as a new medium to grab attention and promote their prod-
ucts and themselves. Wells Fargo Bank, Sun Microsystems, Coca-Cola, and
Toyota have all started building stuff and doing stuff in Second Life as a method
for marketing themselves online. In August, Susanne Vega became the first mu-
sician to perform a “live” concert in SL space, through her avatar.
24
MarketTech 08
PODCASTING
A podcast is a digital media file, or a related collection of such files,
which is distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds for play-
back on portable media players and personal computers. The term,
like “radio”, can refer either to the content itself or to the method by
which it is syndicated; the latter is also termed podcasting. The host
or author of a podcast is often called a podcaster.
25
ADDITIONAL MARKETING TECHNOLOGY RESOURCES:
WEBSITES, LINKS, BOOKS, BLOGS AND
Resources EVERYTHING ELSE
The purpose of this section of the guide is to give you a wealth of resources that can further the learning
process on any of the technologies that we’ve discussed herein and help you put your marketing technology
plans into action
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MarketTech 08
BUZZ MONITORING
Marketing Pilgrim: Buzz Monitoring: 26 Free Tools You Must Have >>
http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2007/08/26-free-tools-for-buzz-monitoring.html
Small Business SEM: SES Session Recap: Buzz Monitoring >>
http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/ses-session-recap-buzz-monitoring/872/
How to put the B in Buzz Monitoring >>
http://www.wiliam.com.au/wiliam-blog/buzz-monitoring
Search Engine Roundtable: Buzz Monitoring >>
http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/014609.html
Web Strategy: Companies that Measure Social Media, Influence, and Brand >>
http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2006/11/25/companies-that-measure-
social-media-influence-brand/
Center Networks: Firestorm 2.0 - Using Social Media Services to Track The Cali-
fornia Fires >> http://www.centernetworks.com/california-fires-social-media
Media Guerrilla: More on Social Media Monitoring >>
http://www.mguerilla.com/media_guerrilla/2006/07/more_on_social_.html
27
ADDITIONAL MARKETING TECHNOLOGY RESOURCES:
WEBSITES, LINKS, BOOKS, BLOGS AND
Resources EVERYTHING ELSE
IPTV
ArsTechnica: An introduction to IPTV >>
http://arstechnica.com/guides/other/iptv.ars
DailyIPTV >> http://www.dailyiptv.com/
Wikipedia: IPTV definition >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPTV
MASHUPS
iMedia Connection: Marketing Mashup Tools >>
http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/10217.asp
Web 2.0 Mashup ecosystem >>
http://www.ipods-and-onlinevideo-reviews.com/web_2_0_news_page_11.htm
MOBILE MARKETING
Wikipedia: Mobile marketing definition >>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_Marketing
Mobile Marketing Association >> http://www.mmaglobal.com/
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MarketTech 08
PODCASTING
Wikipedia: Podcast definition >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcasting
Business Podcast Marketing Case Study Proves Results >> http://ezinearticles.
com/?Business-Podcast-Marketing-Case-Study-Proves-Results&id=69230
MarketingSherpa’s Practical Podcasting Guide for Marketers >>
https://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.html?ident=29679
Podcast Design: Step-by-Step to a Plan >> http://podcastingscout.com/
29
ADDITIONAL MARKETING TECHNOLOGY RESOURCES:
WEBSITES, LINKS, BOOKS, BLOGS AND
Resources EVERYTHING ELSE
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MarketTech 08
pronetadvertising.com/articles/introduction-to-social-media-optimization.html
Social Bookmark Creator >>
http://www.toprankblog.com/tools/social-bookmarks/
Social Media Optimization Blog >> http://social-media-optimization.com/
SOCIAL NETWORKING
TechCrunch: Details Revealed: Google OpenSocial To Launch Thursday >>
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/30/details-revealed-google-opensocial-
to-be-common-apis-for-building-social-apps/
Mark Granovetter: The Strength of Weak Ties >> http://www.si.umich.edu/
~rfrost/courses/SI110/readings/In_Out_and_Beyond/Granovetter.pdf
Cnet: Five reasons social networking doesn’t work >>
http://www.cnet.com/4520-6033_1-6240543-1.html
CNNMoney: The Missing Link >> http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/
business2_archive/2006/12/01/8394967/index.htm
Social Customer Manifesto: Why You Shouldn’t Ignore Social Networks >>
http://www.socialcustomer.com/2007/01/why_you_shouldn.html
JasonKolb.com: Cisco’s Social Networking for Business >>
http://www.jasonkolb.com/weblog/2007/03/ciscos_social_n.html
Information Today: Online Social Networking for Business: An Interview with
Konstantin Guericke, Marketing VP, LinkedIn >>
http://www.infotoday.com/online/nov04/bardon.shtml
Wikipedia.org: List of social networking websites >>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites
Rev2.org: 33 Places to Hangout in the Social Networking Era >> http://www.
rev2.org/2006/07/11/33-places-to-hangout-in-the-social-networking-era/
Top Ten Reviews: Social Networking Sites >>
http://social-networking-websites-review.toptenreviews.com/
Neighborhood America: Enterprise Social Networks >>
http://www.neighborhoodamerica.com/
31
ADDITIONAL MARKETING TECHNOLOGY RESOURCES:
WEBSITES, LINKS, BOOKS, BLOGS AND
Resources EVERYTHING ELSE
SOCIAL SHOPPING
The New York Times: Like Shopping? Social Networking? Try Social Shopping >>
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/11/technology/11ecom.html?_r=1&partner
=rssnyt&emc=rss
TRENDS
IBM: IBM Consumer Survey Shows Decline of TV as Primary Media Device >>
http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/22206.wss
TV & Online Video Convergence
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/54425.html
VIDEO
Blendtec interview on Forrester Groundswell: willitblend.com: Speaking through
YouTube >> http://blogs.forrester.com/charleneli/2007/07/willitblendcom-.html
Blendtec “Will it Blend” viral video site >> http://www.willitblend.com/
YouTube >> www.youtube.com
MarketingProfs (Stephan Spencer): How to Market on YouTube >>
http://www.marketingprofs.com/7/how-to-market-on-youtube-some-exam-
ples-spencer.asp
MarketingSherpa: Video + Humor + Viral = Lead-Gen Success for Data Backup
Firm >> http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.html?ident=29883
USA Today: Marketers are into YouTube >> http://www.usatoday.com/tech/
news/2006-04-17-youtube-marketers_x.htm?POE=TECISVA
8 tips to make your YouTube video go viral >>
http://www.webinknow.com/2007/08/8-tips-to-make-.html
MarketingCharts: Google Video Sites Capture Lion’s Share of Viewers, Videos
Viewed in July >> http://www.marketingcharts.com/interactive/google-video-
sites-capture-lions-share-of-viewers-videos-viewed-in-july-1617/
Contentinople (CMP Media): List of video sharing sites >>
http://www.contentinople.com/proddir/dir_list.asp?dir_id=7
Light Reading: List of 45 video sharing websites >>
http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=112147
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MarketTech 08
Complete list of video sharing websites from Light Reading. Enter video site
name into a search engine to locate the current URL
VIRTUAL EVENTS
BtoB Magazine: Virtual events’ success
A Virtual Events Snapshot: (All data provided by Unisfair)
grows >> http://www.btobonline.com/ • Average live duration: 1.5 days
apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071008/ • Average archived days: 90
FREE/71008034/ • Average registration: 3,102
• Average attendance: 1,587
Biznology: Virtual Events Return Real Value • Show Up Rate: 52%
>> http://www.mikemoran.com/biznology/ • Sponsor/Exhibitor Booths: 15
archives/2007/09/virtual_events.html • Leads Generated per Sponsor: 348
• Conference Sessions: 5 per day
Virtual Event Best Practices with Unis- • Average attendee time at event: 2 hours 31 minutes
fair >> http://www.virtualworldsnews. • Average Locations Visited: 16
• Average Attendee Interactions:13
com/2007/09/virtual-event-b.html
• Average Downloads per attendee: 5
• U.S. Attendees: 58%
• International Attendees: 42%
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ADDITIONAL MARKETING TECHNOLOGY RESOURCES:
WEBSITES, LINKS, BOOKS, BLOGS AND
Resources EVERYTHING ELSE
WEB 2.0
All things Web 2.0 directory >> http://www.allthingsweb2.com
PEW Internet: Riding the Waves of Web 2.0 >>
http://static.scribd.com/docs/aoi8swiquwc99.swf?INITIAL_VIEW=width
Web 3.0
http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.
showArticleHomePage&art_aid=57532
http://www.personalizemedia.com/index.php/2006/08/27/virtual-worlds-web-
30-and-portable-profiles/
http://civicminded.corante.com/archives/2006/08/second_life_targets_exist-
ing_b.php
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/eric_schmidt_defines_web_30.php
http://www.beloit.edu/~pubaff/mindset/
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/12/business/12web.html
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/05/23/business/web.php
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MarketTech 08
WIDGETS
UPS Widget >> http://www.widget.ups.com/widget/en-gb/index.html
MarketingSherpa: Special Report: Marketing With Widgets - Usage Data, Tactics
& Test Results >> http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.html?ident=30137
Widget Best Practices: Clearspring >>
http://www.clearspring.com/docs/tech/widget-dev/best-practices
TechCrunch: Desktop Widgets 101 >>
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/29/desktop-widgets-101/
Sexy Widget: Reviews and analysis of widgets, toolbars, and distributed busi-
nesses of all flavors. >> http://www.sexywidget.com/
Makeuseof.com: 6 Cool FREE Widget Platforms for your PC >>
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/widgets-and-widget-platforms/
WORD-OF-MOUTH MARKETING
WOMMA >> www.womma.org
MarketingCharts: Word-of-Mouth Marketing Spending to Top $1 Billion in 2007 >>
http://www.marketingcharts.com/interactive/word-of-mouth-marketing-spend-
ing-to-top-1-billion-in-2007-2424/
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Marketing Technology and
Terms Social Media Terms
Before you pack your marketing bags and embark on a journey into the world of social media, you’ll need to
know the language. Listed below are 25 basic conversation starters, partially excerpted from OneUpWeb’s
recent Pocket Guide to Social Media. For the purpose of consistency and timeliness, most other definitions
herein are sourced from Wikipedia [www.wikipedia.org] or Webopedia [www.webopedia.com]
Avatars
Graphical images used in virtual worlds to represent people. Users can create
Avatar visual personalities selecting a gender, body type, clothing, behaviors
and name.
Blogs
Shortened from the original term “Weblogs,” these self-published websites con-
taining dated material, are usually written in a journal format. Content such as
text, pictures, video and/or audio have URLs plus other ways of identifying them
by keywords (tags). This allows visitors to pull items to their desktop through
Register for updates to subscriptions or aggregators without having to visit the actual website. Blogs
this guide at: often have links to other relevant online content, plus invite feedback through
www.mtg08.com “posts” which are comments from readers.
Buzz Monitoring
Buzz monitoring is a phrase used in Online Public Relations and social media
marketing to track relevant conversations on the Internet.
Chat
Real time interaction on a web site, with a number of people adding comments
via text entries.
Crowdsourcing
This refers to harnessing the skills and enthusiasm of those outside an organization
who are prepared to volunteer their time contributing content and solving problems.
Feeds
The means by which you can read, view or listen to items from blogs, podcasts
and other RSS-enabled sites without visiting the site, by subscribing to a direc-
tory or aggregator such as iTunes or Bloglines.
Folksonomy
A term for the collaborative, but unstructured, way in which information is cat-
egorized on the web. Instead of using one, centralized form of classification,
users are encouraged to assign freely chosen keywords (called tags) to pieces
of information or data.
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MarketTech 08
Link Baiting
The process by which websites, blogs, etc. encourage links from other sites to
improve popularity and raise positions on search engines. The enticement may
include content, online tools, free downloads, or anything else that another site
owner might find worthy of a link.
Lurkers
People who read but don’t contribute or add comments to forums.
Mashups
An online service or software tool that skilled “techies” develop by combining
two or more tools to create an entirely new service.
Meme
A unit of cultural information such as a popular tune, catch-phrases, beliefs or
fashions that can virally propagate from one mind to another. Online, it may be
shared among bloggers or participants of social sites as a game, activity or quiz
(e.g., name 50 favorite authors, the 100 worst songs, 10 favorite movies).
Mobile Marketing
Mobile Marketing is meant to describe marketing on or with a mobile device,
such as a mobile phone. Marketing on a mobile phone has become increasingly
popular ever since the rise of SMS (Short Message Service) in the early 2000s in
Europe and some parts of Asia when businesses started to collect mobile phone
numbers and send off wanted (or unwanted) content.
Narrowcasting
A term used in opposition to “broadcasting” to describe a podcast’s ability to
reach a narrowly focused, highly interested audience.
Ping
An acronym standing for “packet Internet grouper” or “packed Internet gopher,”
this is an automatic notification sent when a blog has been updated. It also de-
scribes the automatic communication between networked computers/servers.
Podcast
A digital broadcast made available on the internet. Currently the majority of these
broadcasts are audio files sent to directories through XML feeds and RSS—or
Really Simple Syndication—formatted XML files. The word “podcast” is derived
from “pod” as in Apple’s iPod, the popular portable audio player, and “cast” from
“broadcast,” meaning “to transmit for general or public use.”
Podcatcher
A term for programs used to automatically subscribe to and download podcasts;
also called an aggregator. Podcatchers typically seek out new podcast episodes
or items as soon as the program is opened.
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Marketing Technology and
Terms Social Media Terms
RSS
Standing for Really Simple Syndication, RSS is the XML format that allows you
to subscribe to content on blogs, podcasts and other social media, and have it
delivered to you through a feed.
Social bookmarking
The collaborative equivalent of storing favorites or bookmarks within a web
browser. Social bookmarking services such as del.icio.us or Furl allow people to
store their favorite websites online and share them with others who have similar
interests.
Social media
The term used to describe the tools and platforms people use to publish, con-
verse and share content online. These include blogs, wikis, podcasts, and the
sites dedicated to share information, stories, photos, audio and video files, and
bookmarks.
Social networking
Sites developed to help people discover new friends or colleagues with shared
interests, related skills, or a common geographic location. Leading examples
include Friendster, LinkedIn and MySpace.
Tagging
A way of categorizing online content using keywords that describe what can be
found at a website, bookmark, photo or blog post.
Video Podcast
A podcast with enclosures containing video files rather than audio ones. Unlike
audio podcasts which may only contain MP3 files, various file types can be used
when podcasting video.
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MarketTech 08
Viral marketing
The planned promotion of a product, brand or service through a process of
interesting actual or potential customers to pass along marketing information
to friends, family, and colleagues. This word-of-mouth advertising is usually ac-
complished by a creative use of social media and other non-traditional market-
ing channels.
Viral Video
The term viral video refers to video clip content which gains widespread popu-
larity through the process of Internet sharing, typically through email or IM mes-
sages, blogs and other media sharing websites. Viral videos are often humorous
in nature and may range from televised comedy sketches to unintentionally
released amateur video clips.
Virtual worlds
Sites such as Second Life, where individuals can create profiles and represen-
tations of themselves (avatars) to interact with others in an imaginary world.
Marketers have taken up real estate on Second Life in an attempt to extend their
brand to potential new customers.
Wiki
An online, collaborative work space for multiple users of a web page—or set
of pages—that can be edited collaboratively. The best known example is wiki-
pedia, an encyclopedia created by thousands of contributors across the world.
Once people have appropriate permissions—set by the wiki owner—they can
create pages and/or add to and alter existing pages
YouTube
YouTube is a video sharing website where users can upload, view and share
video clips. YouTube was created in mid-February 2005 and uses Adobe Flash
technology to display a wide variety of video content, including movie clips, TV
clips and music videos, as well as amateur content such as videoblogging and
short original videos. In November 2006, Google Inc. acquired YouTube.
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MarketTech 08